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pH 8.5 



1 



BULLETIN OF THE EXTENSION 
DIVISION, INDIANA UNIVERSITY 



Entered as second-class mail matter, October 15, 1915, at the post-office at Bloom- 
ington, Indiana, under the act of August 24, 1912. Published monthly by Indiana 
University, from the University office, Bloomington, Indiana. 



Vol. I 



BLOOMINGTON, IND. 



No. 11 




Play and Recreation 



FOUR PAPERS READ AT THE INDIANA STATE 
CONFERENCE ON PLAY AND 
RECREATION 

/ 



JULY, 1916 



^tonograplii 



^3 



University Extension 



University Extension began as an attempt to provide instruction of 
a college grade for extramural students. The work consisted of lectures 
and class-meetings similar in character to those of resident teaching. It 
was thought that only groups of persons definitely organized for serious 
study could be benefited. The expression "carry the university to the 
people" was given a limited and a literal interpretation. The recent 
growth and development of extension work has been, however, the result 
of a more liberal understanding, namely, that of public service. The 
character of the service is determined by the functions of the university 
and by the demands of the communities within the commonwealth sup- 
porting the university. 

A university has two important functions: to give instruction to resi- 
dent students in the cultural, professional, and vocational branches of 
higher education; to provide for and to promote research and investiga- 
tion in the important fields of human interest and experience. An exten- 
sion division has three functions: to disseminate the valuable knowledge 
acquired or information obtained from research and investigation; to 
carry as far as possible to extramural students the advantages for culture 
and instruction offered in residence; and in addition to these tw» cor- 
relative functions to serve as a cooperative agency thru which many edu- 
cational and public service resources outside of the university may be 
made available for effective public use. 



The Extension Teaching Service of the Indiana University Exten- 
sion Division includes correspondence-study, class instruction, club-study, 
and lecture courses. These activities are designed to, offer some of the 
advantages for culture and instruction within the University to persons 
who are not enrolled as resident students. 

The Public Welfare Service of the Extension Division includes col- 
lecting and lending package libraries, exhibits, and lantern slides; com- 
piling and publishing informational circulars and bulletins; organizing 
and directing institutes, surveys, conferences, discussion leagues, and 
extension centers; and giving cooperative assistance to clubs, civic so- 
cieties, public boards, and to other community agencies. 



D. of De 

SEP 25 f9m 

(2) 



I 



Contents 



Prefatory Note 



1. A City-Wide Recreation Program for Indiana Cities. By 
F. B. Barnes, Director of Municipal Recreation, South 
Bend, Ind. 5 

II. The Social Centers of Milwaukee. By H. O. Berg, Super- 
visor of Extension Department, Milwaukee Public Schools 17 

III. Converting Leisure Time from a Liability to an Asset. By 

Walter B. Dickinson, Associate Secretary of the Play- 
ground and Recreation Association of America 32 

IV. Youth Welfare Needs Leadership in Play. By Sidney A. 

Teller, Director of Stanford Park, Chicago 41 



(3) 



Prefatory Note 



Modern educators recognize "the play instinct" as the 
most stimulative force of childhood and youth. In play the 
child "lives, moves, and has his being" ; thru play he develops 
physically, mentally, morally, and socially. "The plays of chil- 
dren are the germinal leaves of all later life," says Froebel. 
Is your community providing, under trained leadership, an 
opportunity for wholesome play for its children, or has it left 
them to their own resources amid the evils of the village or 
city streets? Has it organized kindergartens, boys' clubs, 
girls' clubs, literary or dramatic societies, athletic associa- 
tions, and other agencies of directed play for children and 
youths ? 

Play in its broader sense is not an activity for children 
alone; it is quite as important for adults, especially for those 
whose work is made monotonous and isolated thru specializa- 
tion and division of labor. To all adults play is an important 
socializing factor: it is an educator; it is a health restorer. 
Nor does recreation mean frivolity. Both socially and indi- 
vidually it is the wholesome and proper use of leisure time. 
Centuries ago the Greeks recognized the importance of the 
right use of hours of leisure, so they fostered public games, 
theaters, forums, as well as art and literature. Forgetting 
that civilization depends upon the rational use of leisure time 
quite as much as upon political, religious, and economic 
achievement, most American communities have neglected to 
provide for public recreation. They have left this Interest to 
be commercialized by private enterprise. We are beginning, 
however, to turn toward the satisfaction of this broad, large, 
human desire and human need ; hence, the play and recreation 
movement — a movement equally important to country and 
city. With this new point of view, a conference on play and 
recreation was held in Indianapolis, May 25, 26, 27. Some 
of the papers read at the conference are incorporated in this 
bulletin. 



I. 



A City- Wide Recreation Program for 
Indiana Cities 

F. B. Barnes, Director of Municipal Recreation, South Bend, Ind. 



The Field. Broadly speaking, recreation is considered as 
that which occurs when we are free to choose the activities 
in which we want to engage. It is not that vocation or pur- 
suit which produces the necessities of life. Recreation is not 
labor in which we engage to provide the necessities for living. 
It is not even the study which comes in the course of prepara- 
tion of the young for life's work. It may be the avocation 
which is pursued in the otherwise unoccupied periods of time. 
It is the chosen pursuits or studies engaged in, in other than 
the prescribed periods for study. We commonly think of 
recreation in the terms of play, and Mr. Dooley, in speaking 
of play, says : "Play is work for which we pay for the privi- 
lege of doing." This is illustrated by what Tom Sawyer did 
to the boys who envied him his job of whitewashing the 
fence. For the privilege of doing his work for him they gave 
him marbles, kite-strings, etc. Recreation is work into which 
there has been injected that element of dominant interest 
toward the acquiring of an interesting end; for example, the 
following scenes were enacted in my yard last summer : 

Act I, Scene 1. Six strong, active boys, restlessly looking 
for some excitement, were lounging on the veranda one warm 
spring day, upon my return home for luncheon. They in- 
quired what there was for them to do. I told them to return 
after luncheon, and I would have something worth while for 
them. 

Act II, Scene 1. Garden plot 9 x 44 badly in need of spad- 
ing ; this lot divided into two equal parts ; equipment, two 
spades. 

Scene 2. Boys returned eager for activities. They were 
told that there would be an athletic contest between two teams 
of three each, the events to be running high jump, broad 
jump, putting the shot, and a spading contest. 



(5) 



6 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



Scene 3. First event, spading contest. Result, garden plot 
44 X 9 spaded in nineteen minutes. The other events followed. 
The winning team was awarded a box of candy, the losers a 
dish of doughnuts. This was work accomplished for the 
pleasure of doing. The contest idea made it fun and not work. 
If I had employed a laborer, it would have taken him a day and 
would have cost one dollar and fifty cents. Dr. Dalliett would 
say: "This is putting into work that all-important something 
known as interest." 




RECREIATION 
AVOCATION 
THIS IS THE FREE EXPRESSION PERIOD 
n/\TIS DONE HERE IS EITHER CONSTRUCTIVL ^ ^ 
/ V OR DESTRUCTIVE 

^'"^^NtHARACTER IS FORMED HERE/VP 

Fig. 1. Division of Activities for Twenty-four Hours 




Recreation is what happens in the leisure time, and it is 
this period which contributes most to the development of char- 
acter. Someone has said: ''What we earn while at work we 
put into our pockets, and what we spend during our leisure 
we put into character." 

The leisure period is when we really live. This is the free 
expression period. All occupations and other phases of life 



Play and Recreation 



7 



are necessary to the full enjoyment of this living period. Work 
provides the means of living; sleep contributes to the health. 
We do not work for the fun or joy of working; we work to 
live. It is when we are not at work that we give free expres- 
sion to ourselves and in expression form our character. Some- 
one has said : *'Sow a thought, reap an act ; sow an act, reap 
a habit ; sow a habit, reap a character ; sow a character, reap 
a destiny." Character is formed not by work or sleep but 
by what we do and how we express ourselves when we are 
free to choose what we want to do. 

The police department, the police court, the jail, the penal 
institution, the asylum, the inebriate sanitarium, poorhouse, 
poorfarm, juvenile court, prosecuting attorney, the whole pro- 
tective phase of modern government is maintained at public 
expense, and is a large item in the budget for which we are 
taxed. It is largely needed because of what happens when 
we are free to choose what we want to do. 

The crime of the age is the waste of the leisure period. 
The hours of leisure spent in constructive pursuits or recrea- 
tion chosen after wise suggestion would color or rather change 
the color of all the rest of the day. Work would lend hope 
for the happy hours of living. Sleep undisturbed by debauch 
and excess would make for more efficient work, larger in- 
come, and consequently larger opportunity for the enjoyment 
of the leisure period. 

The leisure period offers the opportunity for acquiring that 
margin of difference, the mental, moral, and physical effi- 
ciency which marks the contrast between the man who is 
seeking a job and the job which is seeking the man. The 
leisure problem is the greatest problem before the American 
public today, and offers the greatest opportunity for the social 
engineer. 

Commercial interests, including the saloon, the brothel, and 
many questionable forms of amusement, have recognized and 
are exploiting the opportunities of the leisure period. It is 
high time that in our attempts to prevent the waste of human 
efficiency we seek to battle at the source and not at the mouth 
of the stream. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound 
of cure. 

Suggestion for a Plan of Constructive Recreation. Fortu- 
nately, Indiana has a law which was passed by the State 



8 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



legislature in 1913 and which compares very favorably with 
that of any State. This law makes it possible for cities of 
the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth classes to plan and 
execute a program of recreation which will be far-reaching in 
its effect. The law is as follows : 

Public Playgrounds and Public Baths — How Established 
Section I. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of In- 
diana, That the board of health and charities in cities of the first class, in 
this state, and the board of health and charities or the board of school 
commissioners, or board of school trustees, in cities of the second, third, 
fourth and fifth classes, in this state, be and the same are hereby author- 
ized to establish, maintain and equip public playgrounds, public baths and 
public comfort stations in said cities. That the boards of school commis- 
sioners and boards of school trustees or boards of health and charities in 
such cities are hereby authorized to use, and to permit the use of, any 
public grounds, or buildings under their control as in their judgment may 
be required, or adaptable, pursuant to the provisions and for the purpose 
designated in this act. And such boards are hereby authorized to lease or 
purchase grounds, additional to such public grounds either adjacent 
thereto or elsewhere in such cities; and such boards are hereby empow- 
ered, pursuant to the laws of eminent domain now or hereafter in force 
within this state, to condemn real estate to be used for the purposes herein 
expressed and to pay for such real estate so condemned out of the revenue 
hereinafter provided for in this act. 

How Controlled 

Section II. Such boards shall have full control and custody of all 
such playgrounds, baths and comfort stations, including the policing and 
preservation of order thereon, and may adopt suitable rules, regulations 
and by-laws for the control thereof, and the conduct of children and other 
persons while on and using the same, and may enforce the same by suit- 
able penalties. Such boards shall appoint a commissioner of public play- 
grounds, public baths and public comfort stations, whose duty it shall be 
to superintend and manage the work, to select directors and assistants, 
who while on duty, and for the purpose of preserving order and the 
observance of the rules, regulations and by-laws of the said boards shall 
have the powers and authorities of police officers of the respective cities 
in and for which they were severally appointed. The compensation for 
such employes shall be fixed by such boards. 

Expenses — How Paid 
Section III. All the expenses necessarily incurred in carrying out 
the provisions of this act shall be borne by such civil cities. The common 
councils of such cities of the first class shall and cities of the second, 
third, fourth and fifth classes may annually, beginning in 1913, levy the 
sum of not less than one (1) cent nor more than two (2) cents on each 
hundred dollars ($100.00) of taxables within such cities to create the 
sum, to be known as the "recreation fund" to be expended by such boards 
in carrying out the provisions of this act. Such funds shall under no 



Play and Recreation 



9 



circumstances be used for any other purposes, but for the purposes afore- 
said, shall be subject to the warrant of the proper city official without 
any further appropriation. 

Organization. This law, together with two others enacted 
in the same year, gives the mayors of cities in the first, sec- 
ond, third, fourth, and fifth classes power to appoint a com- 
mittee to serve without pay and gives to the common council 
authority to levy a tax of not more than two cents. 

The personnel of the committee should be composed of the 
representatives of the boards controlling property belonging 
to the city, and in addition there should be representatives on 
the committee from some of the organizations which have 
been active in the promotion of civic betterment work. The 
personnel of the committee should be composed of representa- 
tive men and women who are not politicians. At the same 
time the various important classes of citizens should be rep- 
resented on the committee ; e.g. in South Bend we have a large 
foreign population which is almost wholly Catholic. This re- 
ligious and foreign body is represented by one of the most 
influential Polish citizens. 

The contributing boards or departments such as the school 
trustees' park board and administration or civil city should 
form the foundation upon whose support and cooperation 
rests the municipal recreation committee. The law provides 
that the funds shall be expended by the school trustees or 
board of health. The school trustees seem to be the most 
logical body thru which the funds should be administered be- 
cause recreation is preeminently educational, and, in addi- 
tion, much of the work of the recreation committee must be 
carried on thru and with the cooperation of the school organ- 
ization; e.g. the school property, both the buildings and the 
grounds, are the natural community centers because they are 
within the reach of the smallest child, and therefore the adults. 
The playgrounds equipped and administered in connection 
with the school building make for a much larger use at a 
smaller expenditure for operation than playgrounds in the 
parks, because they will be used by the school children during 
the school period and by adults after school and working 
hours. Again no school curriculum is complete that does not 
make provision for properly supervised play. In addition, 
the school building will be used as a community center by all 



10 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



the adults during the winter months, and the school children 
make a very good medium for the distribution of announce- 
ments. 

The park board, because it has the control and administra- 
tion of the public property known as parks, should have an 
important place on the committee, and should prepare and 
equip specially designated places in its parks for playgrounds. 
The administration and conduct of outdoor recreation should 
be in charge of the recreation committee. The function of 
the recreation committee becomes one of supervision and ad- 
ministration, and the contributing boards should furnish the 
place and equipment. 

The civil city must be represented because it alone has 
power to vote a tax levy in accordance with the provisions of 
the law, and from time to time it will be necessary to pass 
ordinances for special appropriation and to meet certain con- 
ditions ; for example, in a certain congested district the street 
offers the only place for play. Therefore, an ordinance for 
closing the street for traffic during certain hours is necessary. 
Again appropriations are necessary for the expense of city- 
wide celebration, pageants, festivals, etc. Also dance halls 
and other forms of commercial amusement need, for their 
control, special legislation. 

The chamber of commerce, women's clubs, and various im- 
portant organizations which promote activities of a more or 
less civic nature ought to be represented. Their cooperation 
is necessary in the carrying out of certain lines of civic bet- 
terment work; for example, clean-up week, gardening pro- 
grams, pageants, celebrations, health campaigns, etc. Repre- 
sentatives from these enumerated organizations and city de- 
partments form a well-balanced organization. 

Function. The function of the recreation committee may 
be briefly stated as follows: the employment of a recreation 
director to plan and carry out an all-year-round city-wide pro- 
gram of constructive recreation which shall be by all and for 
all the people, to be carried on both indoors and outdoors. 

It is the medium whereby all the property belonging to the 
citizens and controlled by the various boards may be fully 
utilized without interfering with the special uses. It is a 
medium thru which the various departments of the city gov- 
ernment and the interests of private or semi-civic individuals 



Play and Recreation 



11 



or organizations and their property may be coordinated into 
a general recreation plan, so that frequent waste and error 
may be avoided and the energies and activities, generally 
working separately, may be combined to produce efficiency 
and a constructive plan of recreation. For example, in South 
Bend there are sixteen organizations which had been con- 
ducting some form of athletics or physical training and had 
never worked together. As a consequence, the spasmodic 
competition between some of the various organizations has 
been along lines of anything but clean sport. The recreation 
director got these organizations together and formed an ama- 
teur athletic federation which standardized the basis of com- 
petition, felevated the ethics, and increased the number and 
variety of games played. For instance, there was organized 
a ward baseball league enrolling in the first year thirty-eight 
teams with about five hundred players. In addition this fed- 
eration promoted many other forms of athletics. 

The basis of promotion for a city-wide recreation plan is 
to utilize the already-organized forces, supervising them only 
to the extent of helping them to help themselves, preserving 
their independence of action and cultivating their initiative 
and responsibility, encouraging self-government in the direc- 
tion of those phases of recreation in which they are most 
interested. 

An additional function of the committee is to provide the 
place and the scheme thru which the individuals may v/ork 
out their own recreation. To illustrate: in the development 
of community center work in the school building which is ulti- 
mately to be used as a neighborhood clubhouse, the first organ- 
ization should be a civic club which automatically enrolls all 
the adults living in the school district. When this club is 
organized it becomes the parent body, and as rapidly as it 
develops committee force sufficient to enlarge its scope of 
work the various organizations follow: the men's athletic 
club, women's athletic club, dramatic club, choral society, 
orchestras, bands, etc. All these various organizations are 
subject to the control of the. civic club, and the civic club is 
held responsible for their acts. 

Of course when the activities of a civic club reach the pro- 
portions of a community center it becomes necessary to em- 
ploy an executive secretary whose duty it is to coordinate the 



12 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



various organizations and to keep the committees up to their 
work. Each civic club is independent and conducts its work 
along lines that suit best the particular needs of the citizens 
of that district. Now the function of the recreation com- 
mittee is to suggest types of recreation which will get the 
largest results and to do this without seeming insistent and 
without lessening the independence of each individual unit. 
In the case of South Bend a civic federation composed of dele- 
gates representing all the civic clubs in the community was 
formed, and meets for mutual helpfulness once a month. It 
is possible at these regular meetings to suggest lines of coop- 
eration and united work which may be and are city-wide in 
scope. This federation offers the vehicle thru which all the 
citizens become informed upon a given subject. It makes pos- 
sible the cooperation of all the citizens in a city-wide project. 
Each of the civic clubs is the people's forum. Recently sev- 
eral matters which had to do with the purchase of property 
and with legislation by the council have been referred to the 
civic clubs for expression as to their wishes. The right of 
the voter who has the power and delegates this power to a rep- 
resentative who makes the law is now being recognized in 
the land. 

Thus the recreation committee becomes and is, without 
authority and without power, merely the coordinating force 
which helps the people to get the kind of recreation that they 
want, and, better still, helps to get them to want the kind of 
recreation which will be best for them. 

A Program of Constructive Recreation for All the People. 

This plan can best be put before you in a comprehensive way 
by referring to the chart which has been worked out to visual- 
ize and keep before the committee its plan of work. At a 
glance you will see the structure as it is built to date. It is 
not complete; it is only the beginning, and will be modified 
or amplified as the work grows. When this was drafted we 
had no precedent to go by. Until recently no city had worked 
out and adopted a complete plan of organization under one 
department which attempted with authority to develop a city- 
wide scheme of recreation. We will pass from the foundation 
to the superstructure because we have referred to the founda- 
tion before. 



Play and Recreation 



13 






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14 Bulletin of the Extension Division 

The eight columns or blocks represent the various lines 
v^hich have been incorporated in the plan, and the capstone 
binding all together gives the titles to the departments. Let 
us begin with the two central and most important depart- 
ments; namely, social or community centers, with subhead- 
ings entitled school buildings and playgrounds. Both belong 
to all the citizens in the community and are the natural social 
or community centers for all the people. The character of the 
work carried on in both is determined in a measure by local 
conditions and the character of the people frequenting these 
centers. 

In the school building properly equipped there may be in- 
cluded every phase of recreation which may be conducted after 
the citizens have completed the day's pursuits. This recrea- 
tion is limited only by equipment and funds, and may range 
from games and plays to drama, art, music, and literature. 
And I am optimistic enough to see the time when supple- 
mental or extension education may be developed so that by 
the proper use of the unemployed hours any citizen may ac- 
quire a university education and never see the inside of a 
university. It is the meeting-place for all voters and the 
place where they may in orderly discussion consider topics 
of community. State, and national importance. 

The playgrounds during the open season are the com- 
munity social centers, and, because of the weather, the time 
of year, become more of a physical-social recreation place, 
where all kinds of outdoor activities are promoted and prac- 
ticed, largely for children, but increasingly more for adults. 
Last year the attendance at our playgrounds was one-third 
adult. Both young and old need the opportunity to express 
thru action the play instincts and to acquire sound and effi- 
ciently trained bodies. Spencer says: ''We stop playing not 
because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." 
Class distinctions, racial lines, and religious creeds are for- 
gotten on the fields of play. Life habits of thought and action 
are raised to higher levels under constructive supervision on 
the playground. I would much rather have a boy know how 
to take defeat bravely and to treat his opponent in a contest 
"on the level" and to put into practice "the square deal", than 
I would to have him crammed full of scripture verses learned 
in a Sunday School verse-learning contest. The teachings of 



Play and Recreation 



15 



the Nazarene can best become character when put into prac- 
tice on the fields of play. The plan is to develop play places 
for all the children and the adults. 

Gardening. Ambition to make the home beautiful and the 
desire to make the unused soil produce some of the necessary 
things of life help to make for civic pride and to constructively 
occupy some of the leisure hours. Three phases of gardening 
are school gardens, vacant lot gardens, and home gardens. 
Three hundred families are enrolled in the home garden con- 
tests. There are one hundred and fifty-five school gardens 
and thirty vacant lot gardeners. 

Pageants. Under this head are enumerated festivals, and 
various celebrations not put on by hired and expert entertain- 
ers, but by the people, thus giving all an opportunity to culti- 
vate the dramatic, musical, and play instincts, and uniting all 
in staging spectacular productions which result in arousing 
civic pride. In this connection the various musical organiza- 
tions are helping in the program of making South Bend famous 
for its music, and out of their cooperation it is hoped there 
will grow a civic music league. There are also several dra- 
matic clubs which are staging plays of varying types, rang- 
ing from minstrel shows to Ibsen's plays. The civic federa- 
tion is staging an historic masque. Each civic club in the 
federation is staging some part of the masque. 

Athletics. I have spoken of athletics before. Suffice it 
to say that here is a field at once the most difficult to con- 
trol and at the same time most potential for good. Athletic 
activities offer the opportunity for wholesome competition 
and organized play for a very large number of young men 
and women and also for the older children. In South Bend 
the program includes a public school athletic league, a church 
and Sunday School league, a parochial church or school, a 
manufacturers' or commercial league, and, in fact, all kinds of 
organizations for conducting indoor and outdoor competitive 
games. Thus we utilize the organizations already existing. 

Outings. Under this department there is opened up a 
whole world of activities which is limited only by the organ- 
izing ability of the recreation committee and the available 
trained leadership, and which includes hiking clubs, nature 
study clubs, boy scouts, camp fire girls, poor children's camps, 
in fact, some form of outing for everybody. 



16 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



Commercial Recreation. A department which is endeav- 
oring to promote constructive recreation must be related to 
those forms of amusement which have both constructive and 
destructive influence upon character. This constructive work 
in the case of South Bend includes the formation of com- 
mittees two of which have made a study of moving-picture 
shows and dance halls and might well study pool halls, bowl- 
ing alleys, shooting galleries, skating rinks, and amusement 
parks. When the influences are not helpful, certain restric- 
tions and regulating ordinances should be presented to the 
council for action. However, the program of counter-attrac- 
tion carried on under the direction of the municipal recreation 
committee will soon be a factor in counteracting the evils 
of commercial recreation. Dancing at the neighborhood 
clubhouse, the school building, where father and mother act 
as chaperones and dance with the young people, and where 
all who attend are known by those in charge, and where 
the influence of liquor is not tolerated, will soon put the 
dance halls out of business. Pool and billiard tables in 
the school building provide a proper environment for these 
wholesome games, and educational moving-picture shows at a 
charge of one cent admission meet successfully the place oc- 
cupied by the moving-picture theater, so frequently a form 
of destructive amusement. Giving people an opportunity 
to stage plays in which they are the actors will develop and 
train the young and give a wholesome type of entertainment 
which will create a taste and desire for a higher grade of 
amusement than that so frequently offered by the theater. 

A School for the Training of Recreation Directors. As 

fast as the work grows to the proportions planned, there will 
be an increasing demand for recreation directors; to illus- 
trate, last year eight play directors were employed in South 
Bend. In 1916 the program calls for thirteen playground 
directors and five community center secretaries. A consider- 
able proportion of the recreation program is taken care of by 
volunteer workers. But there will continue to be an increase 
in the demand for trained directors. 

This program of social service thru constructive recrea- 
tion is big enough for any community. Our clubs and our 
best people everywhere should give this work most hearty 
support. 



11. 

The Social Centers of Milwaukee 



H. 0. Berg, Supervisor of Extension Department, Milwaukee Public 

Schools. 



To advance the wider use of the school plant it is primarily 
essential to have a basic law upon which to operate. Without 
such a law, many complications, difficulties, and embarras- 
sing situations arise. In the matter of public recreation and 
extended school utility, Wisconsin has probably reached as 
high a point in legislation as any State in the Union. Its law 
authorizes boards of school directors to establish and maintain 
special activities such as evening schools, social centers, vaca- 
tion schools, library branches, baths, etc., in the schools, and 
to cooperate with other boards in furnishing the supervision 
in such buildings and on such grounds as these boards may 
control. 

If any board of school directors should neglect or refuse 
to proceed as authorized by this act, ten per cent of the elec- 
tors at the previous school or any other election can, by peti- 
tioning, require the submitting of the question to the electors 
of the school district. If the majority of votes cast shall be 
in favor of the proposition, the school board must proceed to 
undertake and organize the work as authorized in the act. 
Directors must then report to the common council before its 
first meeting in September the amount of money which will 
be required to carry on during the next fiscal year the afore- 
mentioned activities. It then becomes obligatory upon the 
council to levy and collect this tax upon all property, real and 
personal, subject to taxation. This tax must at no time 
exceed more than two-tenths of a mill, and can be used for 
no purpose direct or indirect not mentioned in the act. 

It has become the custom of the American people when 
they find anything radically wrong socially to look to the 
common schools for a solution of the problem. There is a 
growing faith in the power of the public school to shape the 
future of the nation. There can be no shirking on our part 
as educators from this multiplication of responsibility, for 
such shirking would prove us unworthy of the trust placed 



(17) 



18 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



in us. There should rather be an analysis of each situation 
and of our ability and our resources to meet it. 

Society is gradually awakening to the fact that the schools 
are not giving as large a dividend as possible for the amount 
of capital invested. No business man would run his plant 
five hours out of twenty-four if he saw a possibility for 
greater returns. We are gradually realizing that keeping our 
schools and schoolyards locked all but six or seven hours out 
of twenty-four is a great waste, both educational and eco- 
nomic. For years our schools have closed their doors about 
3:30 p.m. and turned the. building over to the janitor. Chil- 
dren have been driven off the premises and kept off with the 
aid of the policeman. . When the janitor was thru with his 
work, the building was locked and no one entered its portals 
for the rest of the day. On Saturday and Sunday it stood idle, 
and woe to the youngster who dared enter even the school- 
yard. During July and August the building was unused, the 
only human beings permitted to enter being janitor, scrub 
women, and repair men. The same was true of the yard. 
The youth was conspicuous by his absence and by broken 
windows. In my own city of Milwaukee, the schools and 
schoolyards were used five and one-half hours on 187 days 
out of a possible 365 days. 

One of the strongest and most admirable features of the 
Wisconsin law is that it places municipal recreation on a firm 
foundation by absolutely settling two much-disputed and all- 
•important phases of the problem, finances and supervision. 

The Wisconsin law is exceptional in its provision concern- 
ing the funds. In many cities where the funds are controlled 
by the councils the progress of recreation is very uncertain 
from year to year. The funds are like a football, kicked high 
when in political favor, kicked low when in political disfavor. 
Many school boards have begun recreational activities but 
because other demands were made upon their funds, suddenly 
retrenched and often discontinued them. In Wisconsin, as 
has been stated before (as far as funds are concerned) it is 
mandatory for a school board to levy the tax for recreational 
purposes from year to year after the people have once voted 
favorably upon it. Financial support is thus positively as- 
sured. 



Play and Recreation 



19 



Placing the supervision of municipal recreation in the 
hands of school boards is often met with the objection that 
school boards are not the proper authorities to control public 
recreation because of lack of sympathy, because of a selfish 
regard of the school buildings as places sacred to the teaching 
of the three R's, they would be apt to frown upon the intrusion 
of any features foreign to books, desks, children, and peda- 
gogs. But as a former worthy superintendent of mine once 
said, ''Give an unsympathetic school board a responsibility 
and note the change of attitude that this responsibility will 
bring about." When the question of recreation centers was 
put before the Milwaukee school board, it was passed by a 
vote of eight to seven. The prophecy of Superintendent 
Pearse has come true. No recreation supervisor has had more 
support, more freedom to carry out his policies than has been 
given me by the Milwaukee board. This board feels that as 
long as the citizens have given it this new responsibility, it 
will stop at nothing to make its social centers and playgrounds 
second to none. 

The problem of recreation involves many phases which are 
of semi-educational nature. It is not and ought not be simply 
a problem of recreation, considering recreation in the popu- 
lar sense of the word. It is a problem of leisure. Many desire 
to spend the leisure otherwise than at sports and games. 
Sewing, cooking, millinery, mechanical drawing, manual train- 
ing, literary societies, and reading clubs are desired for a 
part of the time. Who is better equipped and better able to 
provide, foster, and supervise such work than our school 
boards ? 

r firmly believe that municipal recreation, particularly if 
it is to be housed in public schools, should be controlled abso- 
lutely by the school board instead of by a recreation commis- 
sion, or some other outside force. At best two different forces 
using the same building are bound to have friction. Even I, 
tho having been a member of the teaching corps of Milwaukee 
for seventeen years, encountered many difficulties with the 
teaching corps, which has been very slow to grasp the larger 
vision of education — education beyond the three R's. 

I have yet to see a recreation commission in any large city 
which is not dominated more or less by politics. Politics is 
the one force that my department has not had to contend 



20 Bulletin of the Extension Division 

with except once. Two years ago, when the spirit of retrench- 
ment was in the air, the Milwaukee budget committee very- 
kindly informed the school board that they desired it to cut 
$25,000 from the Extension Department budget. My honor- 
able board, opposed to dictation but willing to cooperate, cut 
$30,000 from the repair fund. What political party is in 
power in Milwaukee is of little concern to my department, 
since my appointment and that of my subordinates does not 
depend upon it. The superintendent of schools appoints the 
supervisor of the Extension Department, and he in turn ap- 
points his subordinates (about five hundred during the year) 
without civil service, subject to the approval of the superin- 
tendent and the board of school directors. 

A suggested wider use of the school plant brings forth a 
volume of objections. The first great objection filed is that 
the school is primarily built for the education of children, that 
the very nature of its construction will not allow recreational 
activities. Milwaukee found it possible to alter its buildings 
at a very small expense to make them adaptable for social 
center work. When additions to our crowded schools are be- 
ing contemplated, recreation activities are borne in mind and 
provided for in the plans. On May 6, 1913, the Milwaukee 
board of school directors passed a resolution instructing the 
school architect to provide for the installation of recreational 
features in all new schools and additions to schools to be built 
thereafter. Milwaukee has just completed a most unique 
building — a combination school, social center, natatorium, and 
library. Policies like this will soon wipe out this first objec- 
tion. 

Another objection is that the recreational activities will 
interfere with the regular school routine. School hours and 
hours for recreation come at different periods of the day. 
Working people are employed during the hours that children 
use the school. They seek their recreation after supper when 
school children should be at home. The regular school janitor 
does his work between the dismissal of school and six o'clock. 

The janitor ! ! Now we have come to one of the largest 
stumbling-blocks in this work. He is an important personage 
who has developed a sort of feeling of personal ownership of 
the building and everything in it. Many cities have made the 
mistake of making the regular day janitor, even tho he was 



Play and Recreation 



21 



unwilling, responsible for the evening work, with, of course, 
extra compensation. Having enough to do with his regular 
day duties he soon becomes overworked. It is then that mole- 
hills become mountains, and he loses no time in carrying to 
the school principal serious tales about trivial mishaps that 
occur during the evening activities, and the principal in 
turn informs the school superintendent. Some boards have 
given the day janitor extra compensation but have required 
him to hire extra help. The thrifty soul then hired cheap 
help, keeping part of the extra pay as compensation for super- 
vision, which he is not apt to give in overabundance. The 
overworked and underpaid help naturally balks, and probably 
quits in the middle of an evening session. 

In Milwaukee we have adopted the plan of an extra janitor 
for the social center work in cases where the day janitor feels 
disinclined to do evening work. He is not paid a stated sum 
per month but a fixed amount per room. Increase in activi- 
ties means increase in compensation. 

Another objection made is that the school used during the 
day by the children and at night by adults becomes unsani- 
tary. The adults who come in the evening are accused of 
being unclean and even germ-laden. When we remember that 
the children of the school come from the very homes of these 
adults, are in contact with them the greater part of the hours 
they are not in school, ride with them on the street cars, and 
sit near them in places of amusement, etc., the danger is not 
as great as may seem at first thought. 

It is sometimes claimed that the people in evening attend- 
ance are malicious in their use of school property, expectorate 
on floors and into inkwells, deface seats and walls, steal books, 
pencils, tablets — in short, are so uncultured that they ought 
to be barred from entering the building. Since these very 
things occur each year when opening evening schools for 
adults, particularly foreigners, this objection would force us 
to discontinue these long-established institutions, to close the 
doors in the faces of these ambitious working people, and tell 
them that they, tho taxpayers, are unfit to use the public school 
equipment. But is it not true that the common schools, the 
bulwark of the nation, should feel responsible for all the ele- 
ments of the community, make an effort to teach people the 



22 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



proper use of public property, paying special attention to those 
who need it most? Will excluding them teach them? 

Many claim that the schoolhouse can never foster a real 
true social spirit. Youth tends to regard it as a place of re- 
pression, a place where he may not laugh aloud, may not talk 
above a whisper, must constantly be on his guard lest he 
offend some finicky schoolma'am or straight-laced schoolmas- 
ter. If this be true, it is pathetic testimony for our system of 
education. Dispelling this traditional feeling of fear and de- 
pression becomes the duty of those in charge of the various 
activities of the center. These leaders must be men and women 
of deep sympathy, keen insight, and abundant patience. They 
must be demonstrative of their interest in the joys and the 
sorrows, the work and the play of those who come to their 
rooms. They must be leaders and friends in the fullest sense 
of the word. They really are hosts and hostesses. 

The varied kinds of activities, the different ages and types 
of people dealt with make the selection of workers a matter 
of extreme importance. The success of a class or a club de- 
pends not merely upon the brains and ingenuity of the one in 
charge, but to a great extent upon his heart and soul. Here 
again the supervisor who is allowed to select his workers on 
the basis of personality plus training and experience is far 
more able to surround himself with a corps of capable, desir- 
able workers than the one who must confine his selection to 
a civil service list, positions on which are obtained thru meas- 
uring up to rather stereotyped qualifications which can be set 
down black on white. 

Nothing so quickly and thoroly refutes this argument of 
suppression and fear as a visit to one of Milwaukee's social 
centers. Here it is very interesting to note that last April 
Ex-Governor McGovern of Wisconsin addressed a civic club in 
one of Milwaukee's social centers. In the course of the eve- 
ning he visited the various activities. A week later he met 
the superintendent of schools, Mr. Potter, and in speaking of 
his social center visit told him that the activities of the young 
people, their enthusiasm, their apparent happiness, and their 
behavior brought tears of joy to his eyes, particularly when he 
realized that he as Governor of Wisconsin had signed the bill 
which made this work a possibility. 



Play and Recreation 



23 



The schoolhouse is usually the neighborhood center from 
the geographic standpoint. It ought also to be the focal point 
of the neighborhood from a civic and community standpoint. 
This can easily be accomplished thru a social center housed 
in the school building and run in connection with it, for such 
a center has at its command hundreds of the world's best 
advertisers — children. A social center becomes a marvelous 
connecting link between the school and the home — a link sadly 
missing in many educational systems. 

Milwaukee's first centers were placed in congested districts 
according to an almost universal belief that slum soil is the 
only soil on which a center will thrive and that the mission of 
a social center is the social uplift of the ''other half". 

With the growing realization of the importance of well- 
spent, supervised leisure, many citizens of our better sections 
began to beseech me to open a schoolhouse in their neighbor- 
hood. Even the Milwaukee school board hesitated when I 
made my first recommendation for a center in one of the 
select residential districts. This very center had during 
April — the Lenten season — an average evening attendance of 
381 — the highest in the city. The fact of the matter is that 
today Milwaukee's most widely patronized centers are those 
in the better districts. 

That recreation is an educational problem belonging in the 
sciiool has practically been conceded by a city which has been 
America's greatest exponent of separate field houses under 
park commission control. I quote from the 1914 annual report 
of the president of the Chicago West Park Commission: "I 
feel that a line must be drawn between the work that may be 
done' in the school building already erected, and that which 
heretofore has been provided to be done by the costly field 
houses erected by the Park Commissioners — that a sharp line 
of demarcation must be made, and that the time for its mak- 
ing has arrived. In the establishment of costly field houses 
in the small park system of the West Side, and, indeed, thru- 
out the City of Chicago, there is a certain duplication of build- 
ings and maintenance charges which increases the burden of 
taxation. There must be a more open use of the public school 
building. Civic economy demands it. There are certain func- 
tions of the organized playground which I firmly believe 
should be operated by the Board of Education. The Board 



24 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



of Education provides liberally for the school children of 
the City of Chicago. It has spent millions of dollars in the 
erection of buildings. The modern school building of today is 
fully equipped to take the place of a small park playground 
field house. All of these schoolhouses should be made the me- 
dium for the housing, training, and care of school children 
and for organized play. It is not fair to the taxpayers for the 
Park Commissioners to duplicate a schoolhouse, for that is 
really v^hat the field house is in a playground center." A 
statement like this coming from Chicago, a city with the great- 
est municipal recreational system in the world, should be 
given a great deal of thought and consideration by any mu- 
nicipality about to begin this work. 

In 1911, Milwaukee secured the service of Mr. Rowland 
Haynes, field secretary of the Playground and Recreation As- 
sociation of America, to make a survey of conditions of recrea- 
tion in Milwaukee. As a result of this survey, the Milwaukee 
school board appropriated $25,000 from its general fund to 
conduct recreational activities in its schoolhouses until the 
special fund authorized by the Wisconsin law was obtained. 

In April, 1912, the school board took advantage of the law 
before mentioned and put the question of continuance of these 
recreational activities to a popular vote. The question was 
carried four to three. As a result, we are carrying on our 
recreational work during the present year under a levy of 
$101,000. 

With this sum Milwaukee has equipped and is conducting 
eight social centers, three evening high schools, five evening 
elementary schools, sixteen playgrounds, one summer high 
school, two summer elementary schools, and is maintaining su- 
pervision of the street trades. 

The Milwaukee board of school directors demonstrated its 
forethought by appointing a special supervisor for this work, 
requiring him to devote his entire time to it. No assistant 
superintendent or other official of the board was given this 
added responsibility to his already complete day; a grievous 
mistake made by many cities. 

Each full-time center, of which Milwaukee has three, i.e. 
one which is open five afternoons and six evenings a week, 
is in charge of a director who devotes his whole time to the 
work. During the hours when he is not in actual charge of 



Play and Recreation 



25 



the center, he devotes himself to a study of the neighborhood : 
the neighborhood places of amusements, different groups of 
young people or individuals who might need to be reached, 
housing conditions, etc. In this work he is ably assisted by 
the visiting nurses of the Child Welfare Division of the City 
Health Department which has a station in the social center. 

The day school principals who assume charge of time cen- 
ters, i.e. those open four evenings a week, are paid according to 
attendance. This stirs them to greater efforts to attract their 
community to the center. Indeed, some of them have devel- 
oped the work to such a degree that the school board has now 
authorized a full-time assistant to do the social and the organ- 
ization work in the community. 

Contrary to general opinion, the schoolhouses were easily 
made adaptable for social center work. The assembly halls 
were fitted for indoor athletics and gymnasium work by 
screening windows and lights, striping the floors for indoor 
baseball, basketball, volley ball, etc. Here the athletically in- 
clined boy or girl has an opportunity for physical develop- 
ment. Unless students at some institution of learning, our 
young people can find few places where they can participate 
in the athletic games, etc. We found that the working boys 
of Milwaukee, after a hard day's work, are not particularly 
fond of formal gymnastics, so we feature the athletic games. 
The girls have shown a distinct inclination for club, wand, and 
dumbbell drills, aesthetic dancing, and folk dancing. To fos- 
ter a love for the athletic games and keep up the interest, 
leagues are organized among the various centers. The girls' 
gymnasium classes are required periodically to contribute a 
number to the regular entertainments. 

In the same hall, dancing classes and socials are held on 
Saturday evening, the dancing classes from 7 to 9 o'clock and 
the socials from 9 to 11:30. These socials are not public. 
No one is admitted unless known to the director or introduced 
to him and vouched for by someone whom the director knows. 
A register is kept of everyone attending the dances. 

The halls are closely supervised. A young man leaving the 
building is asked to take his hat and coat and is not allowed 
to return that evening. This regulation discourages going out 
for a smoke or for refreshments. The dancing is made self- 
supporting by a nominal admission charge of five cents for the 



26 



Bulletin of the Extension Division 



dancing class and ten cents for the social, which money is 
used to pay for the music, instructor, chaperone, wardrobe 
boys, and doortender. We chose Saturday night for our danc- 
ing, because that is the banner night for the low-class dance 
hall with which we are competing. 

Feature parties such as Hallowe'en parties, Japanese par- 
ties, St. Patrick's parties, and the like are given to increase 
the attendance at these Saturday evening socials. During the 
past season the crowds became so large that it was necessary 
to limit the attendance to three hundred at each of the various 
centers. 

The school board has recently authorized dancing in six 
schools other than social centers, making fourteen in all. 

In these assembly halls bi-weekly five-cent entertainments 
are held. These evening entertainments consist of moving- 
pictures, dramatic, literary, and musical numbers given by 
neighborhood talent and social center organizations. 

We make an effort to conduct these entertainments under 
ideal conditions, each school being furnished with one of the 
best moving-picture machines on the market, large stage, cur- 
tains, and footlights. To meet the fire ordinance, the mov- 
ing-picture machines are housed in concrete booths. The audi- 
ences vary in age from the aged grandfather to the infant who 
is left to sleep in his go-cart in the corridors. Since one of 
the great evils of the moving-picture show and the public 
theater is the promiscuous seating of the audience, segregation 
is carried out at our entertainments by reserving one section 
for parents with their children, escorted and unescorted girls, 
and another section for men and boys. Thus many dangers of 
a mixed public gathering are minimized. No children under 
fourteen are admitted unless accompanied by their parents. 
This rule insures the good behavior of the children, and the 
family unit is kept intact. The common practice of allowing 
dancing after an entertainment is strictly forbidden. A dance 
following a public entertainment means a public dance. The 
admittance fee of five cents gives the director a small working 
fund with which to meet the many little bills that spring 
up in the administration of a social center. These bills, if paid 
by the school board, are likely to become irritating to the mem- 
bers of the board who do not always understand the inside 
workings of a center. Furthermore, a small charge makes a 



Play and Recreation 



27 



more appreciative audience and places some of the expense 
where it partially belongs. Our school halls, having a seating 
capacity of from four hundred to eleven hundred, are nearly 
always taxed to their fullest capacity, and often people must 
be turned away. 

Every Saturday afternoon entertainments are given for the 
school children. An admission fee of one cent is charged. 
These receipts are used to defray the cost of the moving- 
picture reels, operator, doortender, chaperone, and musician. 
The large attendances have made two entertainments an after- 
noon necessary, one for boys and one for girls. Three films 
are shown at each entertainment. The remainder of the pro- 
gram consists of a short stereopticon lecture on some indus- 
trial, historical, or geographical topic, story-telling, dramatic 
numbers by the juvenile dramatic clubs, and other numbers 
which appeal to children. 

Over two hundred dollars was spent in the purchase of 
slides on geographical and historical topics. The children of 
the neighboring schools are given a special invitation to attend 
the entertainments when the stereopticon or moving-picture 
numbers pertain to any particular topic which they are study- 
ing. In this way the center becomes an aid or auxiliary to 
the regular school work. 

This spring, by a unanimous vote of the school board, the 
assembly halls of all schools were opened for political meet- 
ings during the municipal campaign. The results were such 
as to warrant a continuance of this policy in the campaigns 
of the future. Such a use of the school plant destines it to 
become an important factor in the civic life of the community. 

Thus you see that the assembly halls, as a rule the most 
expensive but the least used rooms of our schools, are vir- 
tually in use every evening of the week housing athletic games, 
gymnasium classes, dances, neighborhood entertainments, 
children's moving-picture entertainments, or political cam- 
paign meetings. 

Basements of schools are partitioned off into rooms and 
made pleasant by whitewashing the walls, painting the cement 
floors, and brilliantly lighting with electricity. Where not 
enough basement rooms are available, classrooms are used. 
Desks are screwed in threes to wooden strips or runners, mak- 
ing it easy to slide them into the corridor so that the room 



28 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



can be used for any activity desired, be it dancing, sewing, or 
debating. One of these rooms is then used as a library or 
reading-room, taking the place of the costly library branches 
so common in some cities. These rooms, in my estimation, 
have a greater future than the library branches. The patrons 
of a library are readers. Rarely does an individual, a non- 
reader, drop in to make a survey or to satisfy his curiosity. 
He knows that it contains books, magazines, and newspapers. 
If he wishes to read, he is welcome to come in. But the par- 
ticipation by an individual in his favorite pastime other than 
reading, in a building containing library features, will make 
it easy to bring him to the reading-room if properly managed 
by the social center authorities. The books are furnished by 
the Public Library. The librarian tries to cooperate with the 
regular school in directing the reading of the children along 
historical, literary, and geographical lines. Certain periods 
are set aside for story-telling. Vv^ith the cooperation of the 
Public Museum, courses are given in birds, minerals, Indian 
life, etc. The prevailing foreign languages of the neighbor- 
hoods are catered to thru books and periodicals. The eve- 
ning schools being run in conjunction with the centers, these 
foreign books become a strong drawing card to the library. 
Each library is furnished with a phonograph. The school 
board has purchased five hundred dollars' worth of records. 
An effort is made to acquaint the children with great musical 
artists, composers and compositions, the different kinds of 
musical instruments, the different musical combinations, 
duets, trios, quartets, etc. ; in short, the object of the course 
is to create a love, understanding, and appreciation of good 
music. 

One room is equipped with three pool tables. Since no 
boys under sixteen are admitted, the frequenters of this room 
are usually boys already expert in this most fascinating game. 
If they do not know the game, is it not advisable to let them 
learn it in a wholesome environment, particularly at the age 
when they crave to do things and to go to places not quite 
approved of by their elders? Saturation at this age may 
eliminate a future desire. These poolrooms are generally 
crowded, — so crowded that one principal recently asked me 
for bleachers. Our pool tables are the connecting link be- 
tween the neighborhood gang and the center. 



Play and Recreation 



29 



Another room has an equipment of the minor games such 
as dominoes, checkers, various card games, parchisi, and the 
like. 

A fifth room has its lights and windows protected by 
screens. It is here that the boys and the girls work off some 
of their superfluous energy in the low organized games — 
games requiring little skill and team work, but much energy. 
This room has been nicknamed the ''roughhouse room". A 
short participation in the games of this room relieves even 
the toughest boy of his superfluous energy, and transforms 
him into a peaceable citizen, making it an easy proposition 
for those in charge to direct this now docile creature to the 
other activities of the center. 

A sixth room is fitted up as a clubroom for clubs such as 
science clubs, boy scouts, boy patriots, athletic clubs, little 
mothers' clubs, newsboys' republic clubs, afternoon and eve- 
ning sewing or millinery classes, and many other similar activ- 
ities. I hope this room may be used some day as a smoking- 
room for the men. It may then partially displace that most 
social clubroom, the saloon. This room, together with the 
corridors, which are equipped with settees and arm-chairs, 
will afford a meeting-place for men to come together and dis- 
cuss informally the social, business, and economic questions 
of the day. 

A seventh room is fitted up with shower baths and lockers. 
Many homes in our congested districts contain no bathing 
facilities. If bathing is indulged in, the old wooden washtub 
is brought into use. Often men who know of the existence 
of a natatorium do not avail themselves of its privileges, but 
if brought in close contact with the shower baths while tak- 
ing part in other activities, they follow the crowd. A large 
Turkish towel and a small bar of soap are furnished for two 
cents, enough to pay for the wear and tear and laundering of 
the towels and the cost of the soap. 

The spacious kindergarten room is used for the adult glee 
clubs, dramatic clubs, orchestras, bands, and civic clubs which 
may meet in the building. Young people of talent — literary, 
musical, dramatic, etc. — can make rapid progress in their par- 
ticular lines if banded together and meeting with those simi- 
larly endowed. Many organizations of this sort have been 
taken from meeting-places not conducive to the best morals. 



30 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



Another room is used as a wardrobe. Every person enter- 
ing a center is directed to this room by the doortender. Here 
outer wraps and hats are checked without charge. Relieving 
a person of his outer garments in this manner has a tendency 
to make him feel more at home and to induce him to prolong 
his evening visit. 

In the same building are conducted classes in English for 
foreigners. One center had an attendance of over three hun- 
dred such students. Naturalization classes are also conducted. 
Milwaukee contains hundreds of men who have not taken out 
their second papers and who dread the ordeal of the examina- 
tion required. They w^elcome the opportunity of being in- 
structed along the lines of elementary history and civics. 
These evening classes serve as a nucleus for the organization 
of various clubs. 

Elementary school children are not admitted to the centers 
in the evening. This rule is the result of public opinion that 
children of this age belong around the family hearth in the 
evening. I have since learned to welcome the dictates of this 
sentiment, for experience has shown me that the little boy 
drives out the older boy and the adult. Two afternoons a 
week from 4 to 6 o'clock are set aside for school boys and two 
afternoons for girls. 

The afternoon children are divided into four classes accord- 
ing to age. They are shifted from one room to another every 
half -hour to give them a chance to spend an equal period in 
each of the four main activities of the afternoon center. As 
club activities arise in the different groups, one or more of 
these main activities is dropped for the particular day, and 
thus, almost mechanically, a good attendance is obtained at 
the club activity without disarranging the center program. 
Each group is also given a stated time to go to the shower 
baths. 

At the end of the social center season each center holds a 
banquet for all the members of its organized activities. This 
year a total of over three thousand sat at the various banquet 
boards on Saturday evening, April 29. Addresses were made 
by prominent citizens, numbers were rendered by the center 
dramatic, literary, and musical clubs. The evening closed 
with dancing socials. 



Play and Recreation 



31 



This year the dramatic clubs and musical organizations 
united in two grand concerts, twenty-five organizations, com- 
posed of four hundred and ninety-one persons, participating. 
The combined audiences numbered eighteen hundred. 

Too often our young people go to ruin because of the par- 
ents' implicit faith in them and readiness to believe their 
accounts of where they spend their evenings and the kinds 
of recreation offered them. To prevent the young people 
from using the center as a dodger, cards are issued to those 
whose parents demand them, upon which the doortender 
writes the director's name, the name of the young man or 
young woman who is asking for it, the date, the hour of his 
or her arrival, and the hour of leaving. Thus any parent 
can know the exact whereabouts of his son or daughter. This 
is freely advertised in the newspapers and is mentioned to 
the parents at all entertainments. 

In this paper, I have tried to tell you briefly how Mil- 
waukee is economizing in the conducting of its municipal 
recreation by using buildings already at its command, i.e. by 
a wider use of the school plant. 



III. 



Converting Leisure Time from a Liability 

to an Asset 

Walter B. Dickinson, Associate Secretary of the Playground and Recre- 
ation Association of America, New York City. 



The subject is divided into three parts: the facts, the 
process, the force. The facts concerning leisure show it to 
be a potentiality of peril or of beneficence. The process of 
conversion from a danger and a peril to a help and a resource 
is one of organization, the use of modern facilities, and the 
development of public interest and sustained support. The 
dynamic of conversion is personality, prepared and full of 
enthusiasm. 

The accumulating evidence of interest in the recreation 
movement on the part of social leaders everywhere may be 
summed up in two statements which have recently come to 
my attention, one by Governor Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania: 

"If we are to conserve the health, the morals, and the fine 
spirit of enthusiasm so vital to the welfare of our people, we 
have in this recreational movement the greater opportunity 
for good now lying within the field of social service. The 
wrong against society is committed by our people not in their 
hours of work but in their hours of leisure, and the responsi- 
bility lies not wholly with the people who perform these un- 
fortunate acts, but with the people who have not been wise 
enough to see that the fundamental business of the community 
at large is to see to it that it becomes increasingly easy for 
the people to do right and increasingly hard for them to do 
wrong." 

The other is from Charles C. Stillman, secretary of the 
United Charities of St. Paul and lecturer in the University 
of Minnesota. He says : 

"I believe there is no social program in the United States 
more necessary and natural, fundamental and effective than 
the program of the Playground and Recreation Association 
of America." 

(32) 



Play and Recreation 



33 



Using the very conservative figure of experts, that five 
hours per day per individual is a minimum of leisure time 
available, there is now in the State of Indiana the impressive 
and incomprehensible total of 14,000,000 hours or 1,599 years 
of leisure time available per day. 

No material potentiality of the State compares with this. 
From these hours flow the streams of life and death. In 
them are sown the seeds of culture and restraint or of license 
and bigotry. In them are committed most crimes. In them 
all the black and noisome pestilences of the night breathe out 
their poisons and putrefaction. In them the lowest and mean- 
est exploiters of humanity carry on their nefarious work. In 
them the varicolored lights of the street scintillate and destroy 
the light of balanced judgment. In them Hell itself breaks 
loose, overwhelms conscience, and puts a blanket on the face 
of God. 

On the other hand, in them the toiler trudges wearily home 
and quickens his step when the light from the little window 
in his humble cottage catches his eye. In these leisure hours, 
the heavenly light plays on the faces of his wife and children. 
There is no sweeter paradise than the happy homes of the 
honest workers in the off hours. In them music and art and 
literary expression inspire and lift life to greater heights. In 
them the fires of religious enthusiasm are kept burning on 
the altars of humanity. In them the voices of poets and 
singers are heard. In them the laughter of children at play 
makes a fairyland of the dingy streets. In these leisure hours 
are contained the reserve moral forces of society. 

Between these two conflicting forces, you and I, my fellow- 
workers, take our stand to fight. It is a fight for morality, 
for patriotism, for justice, for a fuller, more vibrant and vig- 
orous life. There is no struggle like it. 

This leisure, if measured economically, represents at low 
valuation of ten cents per hour a total of $1,400,000 per 
day or $511,000,000 per year to this State. The value of 
agricultural products in Indiana in 1909 was $228,038,389 ; 
of manufactured products $40,541,000. There is no resource 
in the grasp of the State so great as the leisure of its people, 
a resource which may be realized upon immediately and at a 
comparatively small cost and which will return undreamed-of 
values in education and social betterment. 



34 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



The money-makers are alert to the situation. They eagerly 
contest for the golden prize which scientific discovery and 
mechanical development have put into each day somewhere 
between sunrise and bedtime. The New York Evening Post 
is authority for the statement that five big moving-picture 
spectacles, representing an aggregate expenditure estimated 
at $2,000,000, are getting ready for an arduous summer. 
These enterprising people will spend a quarter of a million on 
exploitation and twice as much more on theater rentals and 
upkeep. 

"The Fall of a Nation", "Civilization", "Gloria's Romance", 
"A Daughter of the Gods", "The Mother and the Law" are 
the pieces to follow. "Romana" is already on the board. If 
these pictures reach the standard of excellence of "The Birth 
of a Nation", whose success they wish to repeat, one can 
readily commend that five leisure hours of anyone's time be 
spent in seeing them. 

Five hours a day in passive, indoor, non-participating recre- 
ation is not so bad provided the pictures are good and the 
best practice is followed in the service and appointments of 
the theater, provided other leisure hours be more actively 
used. It is a dissipation of power and a waste of opportunity 
to give many evenings a week to the movies. 

The positive perils of unplanned leisure are familiar to all. 
The various recreation surveys show conclusively that delin- 
quency and crime, bad habits and profanity, brutality and 
immorality, are the crop the city harvests from idleness, 
nothing to do, no definite plans for the out-of -school and out- 
of-door hours. 

The negative perils are probably greater than the positive. 
It is very difficult to measure what might have been. Yet the 
greatest crime of ail is the crime of arrested development, be- 
cause it is in reality the crime of murder. Many a brain 
has been innoculated in lazy, dissipated leisure hours with the 
bacilli of inertia, and has been as effectively put out of busi- 
ness as a moral force and a radiant energy as if paralyzed 
by a blood-clot. The chief complaint is not that so much 
leisure time is misused as that it is not used at all. The re- 
ports from one city show that the churches, theaters, picture 
places, Y.M.C.A., and Y.W.C.A. used for good (if we count 
them all in that direction) but 1,362 hours per week, and 



Play and Recreation 



35 



that the saloons supply 7,992 hours per week, making a total 
of 9,354 hours per week for good and bad as against twenty- 
nine years of leisure opportunity per day possessed by that 
city. 

It is the vast, undiscovered uses of leisure that challenge 
our wits, and wholesome public recreation should make as 
strong a bid for it as commerce. 

The latencies of leisure are to be unloosed for large things ; 
the reserves of moral force and character which are the essen- 
tials in personal preparedness for service are to be found in 
leisure hours. It is a startling phenomenon to see a great 
fighting nation today, with four million prime workers with- 
drawn from the industries, producing as much as before the 
war. She has drawn upon great labor reserves thru organ- 
ization. 

The strain of social workers and the plaint of religious 
leaders often leaves the impression that our moral forces are 
being used up to the limit. It is not so; the great reserves 
have not been organized; leisure is a great asset for service. 

The educator, the social worker, the preacher, all social- 
ized citizens, ought to get together and capture leisure in the 
community, get it where it may be controlled, which suggests 
my second point, namely, the process of converting leisure 
from a liability to an asset is one of organization, of using 
modern facilities and stirring the public interest to secure 
adequate support. 

Twelve cities of Indiana, representing a total population of 
537,487, reported organized playgrounds and recreation activi- 
ties last year. Indianapolis is the largest and Connersville the 
smallest place reported. There were twelve centers operated 
thruout the year in Indiana, eight of them in South Bend 
alone. Indianapolis reports three and Crawfordsville, one. 
There were eighteen State workers giving full time thruout 
the year to the work, and ninety-seven centers were main- 
tained under supervision part of the year. The average daily 
attendance at all the centers in the State in July and August 
last was under fifteen thousand and the average daily attend- 
ance at winter centers was under five thousand (these figures 
are exclusive of Gary) . 

Compare these averages with the school enrollment in Indi- 
ana, of 520,272 below the high school and 55,094 in the high 



36 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



school and preparatory schools, and see how small a propor- 
tion of the recreational needs has been met. 

The Children's Bureau of the United States reports 1,055,- 
188 children under twenty years of age in Indiana, and there 
were less than twenty thousand reached by the public recrea- 
tion systems of the State. As a matter of fact, many of that 
twenty thousand represent adult attendance. 

Of the 1,055,188 under twenty, 654,059 live in rural com- 
munities and 401,129 in urban communities. Most of the 
children of the State are in communities of under two thou- 
sand people, and as yet the recreation problem in the small 
community has not been solved in a comprehensive and ade- 
quate way. 

The form of organization is largely a matter of local con- 
ditions. It does not make so much difference what the ad- 
ministrative body is called or just who is on it, if the work is 
done and if definite progress is made thru the year in the 
number of children reached by the highest forms of play 
method and leadership and in the more socially valuable forms 
of adult recreation introduced in leisure hours. 

Two hundred fifty cities of the country reported that 
their playground and recreation centers were administered 
entirely or in part by some department of the municipality. 
Fifty-five of them were maintained by playground and recrea- 
tion commissions and boards, twelve by city playground or 
recreation departments, six by city councils and boards of 
selectmen, seventy-one by school boards, and thirty-one by 
park boards. 

To make measurable progress in meeting leisure time needs 
thru recreation systems, the very best modern facilities should 
be developed. No makeshifts for buildings or temporary de- 
vices for equipment are going to impress the community with 
the importance of the problem. 

The State possesses great resources and facilities which 
may be used. In 1912, 8,909 buildings were used as school- 
houses. The value of school property in that year was $44,- 
777,389. 

In a well-to-do middle-western city, consideration was 
given to the recreation problem by a group of leading citizens 
and by the city government. After much discussion and in- 
quiry, it was thought $600 might be appropriated for the 



Play and Recreation 



37 



work. When the budget was finally made up, this amount 
was cut to $300. How any self-respecting American com- 
munity, thriving under the present unprecedented prosperity, 
could bring itself to appropriate the gigantic sum of $300 for 
the play of its fifteen thousand children is perplexing! It 
is quite similar to the situation of the colored gentleman 
arraigned on Monday morning for the nonsupport of his wife. 
In defending himself, he stated, *'Why, that woman came to 
me for $5 on Friday night and on Saturday night she asked 
me for $1 more and on Sunday night she came around again 
for $2. Most unreasonable woman I ever saw!" *'But what 
does she do with the money, Sam?" asked the judge. ''Why, 
Your Honor, I don't know. I ain't done give her none yet." 

If there is any one idea that ought to be squelched, it 
is that a recreation system is a cheap thing. 

The public does care for its children. It requires little 
argument to convince a city that the children are its most 
precious treasure, economically and spiritually, that invest- 
ment in the conservatism of child life ''repays in after years 
a usury of profit beyond our most sanguine dreams". 

Of the $4,066,377.15 reported as expended in the United 
States for play center development, Indiana spent $115,479.76. 
Contrast this expenditure with the amount distributed for the 
support of public schools in 1912-13 of $16,443,654. 

The school year in Indiana is 7.66 months or approximately 
165 days of five and one-half hours each, that is, Indiana 
spent sixteen and one-half millions for 908 hours of its chil- 
dren's time. 

Every child is active at least twelve hours in every twenty- 
four. Some parents could prove successfully, no doubt, that 
their children are active twenty-four hours a day. Twelve 
active hours per day make a total of 4,380 active hours per 
year. Deducting the 908 in school, there remains 3,472 active 
hours for which Indiana invested $115,479 as against the six- 
teen and one-half millions for the time spent in school. This 
is like a farmer cultivating only one side of his corn rows 
and expecting to secure a crop. 

In illustration of the value of organization and the use of 
modern facilities, two facts may be introduced here. In South 
Bend last winter the city administration secured a quick and 
accurate reaction on two matters of general civic concern by 



38 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



asking the Department of Recreation to introduce these mat- 
ters to the various civic clubs in the schoolhouse social cen- 
ters for discussion and action. As a result of this referendum, 
the administration found out how the people felt on these 
issues without depending upon an omniscient press to inform 
it. It is an excellent example of good organization thru which 
the control of the power, that is, the city government, was 
brought face to face with the source of power, the people. 
This is true democracy and worthy of emulation. 

The other fact is that of the transfer of a very valuable 
piece of property to the Recreation Department. In Detroit, 
the Art Museum has been recognized as fundamentally a recre- 
ational institution and placed in the department of recreation 
of the city government. Its annual budget of approximately 
forty thousand dollars is allowed as a part of the recreation 
budget. This act of the trustee of the Detroit Art Museum 
is a significant sign and indicates the stability and dignity 
which attaches to the recreation movement. 

When Lincoln remarked : ''Gold is good, but living, brave, 
and patriotic men are better" he gave personality that prece- 
dence over property which all of discerning sight recognize 
should be given it. President Wilson has magnificently put 
the stress on humanity. In his inaugural address, this para- 
graph should be remembered by every patriot: *'We have 
been proud of our industrial achievements but we have not 
stopped hitherto thoughtfully enough to consider the human 
cost: the cost in lives snuffed out; in energies overtaxed and 
broken; the terrible physical and spiritual cost of men and 
little children upon whom the dread weight and burden of it 
all has fallen pitilessly, the years through. It is our duty to 
reconsider, to restore, to cleanse, to humanize and purify every 
process of our common life without weakening or sentimen- 
talizing it." 

After all, the dynamic of a recreation system is personality. 
If a well-organized system is established in a community, if 
the best facilities are developed, and if the machinery is put 
in well-oiled condition, it will never take leisure as it is today 
and turn out a new leisure as an asset to the community un- 
less someone puts his life blood into it. 

When the great Galilean social worker, who understood 
children so well, made puritj^ righteousness, mercy, sympathy. 



Play and Recreation 



39 



peacemaking, and the enduring of persecutions as conditions 
of citizenship in the new social order called the Kingdom of 
God, he gave the long view and the straight road and the 
complete service as the method. 

Recreation leadership is no summertime job; it is a man's 
work and worthy of the highest patriotic consecration. 

As Carlyle says, ''Get your man and all is got." He must 
be prepared and he must be radiant. It is more important 
that he have a motor mind than that he know how to mix 
cement, tho a good recreation man will know how to do that. 

The machinery of the converting process as a whole has 
been worked out pretty well. (The United States Bulletin 
No. 28, Bureau of Education, gives much valuable informa- 
tion.) If it were a question of "What shall we do?" the work 
now done would be sufficient answer. It is more a question of 
"Who will do it?" and "How shall it be done?" 

The superintendent of recreation in a large city or the 
director of community activities in the smaller place must be 
an experienced and trained executive. He must be a man who 
knows the technical side of his work. He must be familiar 
with the best practice thruout the country and be able to se- 
cure the best returns for the money invested. He must be 
able to interpret the fundamentals of recreation to his com- 
munity by his work and his words to the end that the people 
will be increasingly favorable to adequately equip and man 
the system. He must recognize that the key to the whole 
leisure-time problem is in developing habits of vv^holesome ac- 
tivity in the boys and girls. A man who has been happily 
and usefully active thru leisure hours of his boyhood is not 
likely to fritter away or misuse his leisure as a man. 

The socialization, solidarity, and wholesome strength of our 
civilization may be attained thru the alertness, moral courage, 
and radiant energy of the managers of leisure time, who have 
faith in humanity and democracy, who know that when peo- 
ple talk together, sing together, and play together the ideals 
of brotherhood are actually being realized. 

Both for the recreation director and for his people, may 
I recommend these words of Froebel: "Mankind is meant 
to enjoy a degree of knowledge and insight, of energy and effi- 
ciency of which at present we have no conception; for who 
has fathomed the destiny of heavenborn mankind? But these 



40 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



things are to be developed in each individual, growing forth 
in each one in the vigor and might of youth, as nev^ly-created 
self -productions. The boy is to take up his future work, which 
now has become his calling, not indolently, in sullen gloom, but 
cheerfully and joyously, trusting God and nature, rejoicing 
in the manifold prosperity of his work. Peace, harmony, mod- 
eration, and all the high civil and human virtues will dwell 
in his soul and in his house, and he will secure through and 
in the circle of his activity, the contentment for which all 
strive." 



IV. 



Youth Welfare Needs Leadership in Play 



Sidney A. Teller, Director of Stanford Park, Chicago. 



The playground movement as regards leadership or super- 
vision of play was preceded by two stages. We thought only 
a few years ago that all that children needed was the space 
in which to play. We then treated children like chickens and 
the common cry was like "Shoo, Shoo, Chickens", **Shoo, Shoo, 
Children, go out and play." We soon learned that the space 
was not the greater need, it was things with which to play. 
And so we had an epidemic of equipment, all thru the country 
in all our established playgrounds. Each town tried to outdo 
the other town in mere equipment and play apparatus. In 
a very short time there was a reaction against playgrounds 
as then organized and we learned that more important than 
space, more important than the equipment, is the leadership 
or supervision in the play and over the play space and equip- 
ment. 

Now we have the slogan that unsupervised play means 
bad play, and that it is better for the final success of the 
playground movement in any community and better for the 
community to have no playgrounds than to have unsuper- 
vised playgrounds. Without supervision and leadership any 
and all of the following have happened and can happen again : 
(1) There is chaos on the playground. (2) There are many 
physical accidents. (3) Racial, religious, and national preju- 
dices are increased. (4) Rowdyism rules, the bully is in 
charge. (5) There is no control over the smoking. (6) There 
is no control over profanity. (7) There is no control over 
the obscene story or the obscene writing. (8) There is a 
chance for the spread of immorality among the girls and the 
boys. (9) There is no respect for the apparatus or the 
grounds, — and there is consequent destruction of property. 
(10) There is no respect for the smaller children, weaker chil- 
dren, or weaker groups. Fights are frequent. (11) There is 
danger in overstrain because apparatus is not properly used. 
(12) There is no social expression of play thru the tourna- 



(41) 



42 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



ment, track meet, pageant, or celebration. All these and more 
occur where there is no responsible leadership and super- 
vision. Unsupervised play makes for juvenile delinquency, 
lack of fair play, of clean sport, and of good citizenship. 

So we can readily see that youth without supervision in 
his play goes wrong or achieves nothing. Play is not merely 
physical; it has an intellectual, spiritual, social, and com- 
munity expression as well. To neutralize the negative expres- 
sion of bad play and to substitute something positive, con- 
structive, and wholesome in its stead can be accomplished 
only thru leadership. To the leader there are three parts, all 
essential, but the first is personality. A leader on the play- 
ground is constantly spreading his personality, so his per- 
sonality must be a good one. He must be clean in habit and 
in appearance, social as well as socialized, and inspired with 
the highest ideals of what play and playgrounds mean. Next 
to personality is training, which must be comprehensive and 
well based. After training comes the third essential, experi- 
ence. The more experience the leader has the less provincial 
he is. We all know that new ideas, growth, etc., come with 
experience. 

We have shown by contrast that youth needs leadership 
in play. We have stated that we want a leader with person- 
ality, training, experience. Now, assuming that we have a 
playground with the right kind of leadership, proper appa- 
ratus, and sufficient play space, what can we do for youth? 
We will first correct the organization and administration of 
the playground so as to make for fair play and clean play. 
There will be the instruction in the proper use of apparatus 
to prevent accidents, there will be games for all ages and for 
both sexes. From the playgrounds will disappear the bully, 
the cigarette, and the dirty talk. Tournaments, contests, track 
and field sports will be promoted. A boys' republic will be 
instituted under the guiding hand of the leader. The play- 
ground will thus develop into a social force instead of an anti- 
social force, and will make for better citizenship instead of 
juvenile delinquency. 

Thru leadership on our small children's playground, where 
small boys and girls up to the age of nine or ten years play 
together, we bring about the group games, handwork or indus- 
trial work, the story hour, simple plays and songs, sandpile 



Play and Recreation 



43 



work, simple folk dancing and gymnastic dancing, and proper 
use of apparatus. 'Tree play" on a children's playground 
with and without supervision is the difference between liberty 
and license, between throwing sand and breaking down the 
other child's sandhouse, and all of the children in the sandpile 
republic building a play city out of the sand together. 

Thru leadership on our girls' playground, where girls and 
young women from ten years of age and upward have their 
play and recreation, many things can be accomplished. 
Girls need the team spirit, and thru the leader cooperation is 
brought about. All kinds of team games are developed, as 
well as track and field sports and contests. There will be hand- 
work also, gymnastic dancing, folk dancing, apparatus work, 
preparation and participation in festival, pageant, and celebra- 
tion. The leader gives a personal touch in clothes, appearance, 
cleanliness, personal hygiene, first aid, manners, etc. Take 
away the leader and these good things will not happen, but 
instead we will have something like the girls' club without a 
leader which broke up at its very first meeting because every 
girl wanted to be president, would not vote for anyone else, 
and would not ''play" unless she was "it". 

On our boys' side where lads from ten to twenty years 
congregate, we have the gang, the "big head" age, the ado- 
lescent period problem, all to deal with. Without the leader, 
the bully of the gang runs things and might makes right. 
One of the best of boys' group expressions is the game, if it 
can be called a game, of "Follow the Leader", and boys do 
follow the leader. So if this leader is the instructor in charge 
of the boys' work, and thru him and because of the standards 
set, a new kind of leadership is evolved, the gang is translated 
into the athletic team, the lad with the "big head" is ready 
to make the sacrifice hit for his side, and the critical time of 
adolescence is passed in a wholesome, healthy way. Leader- 
ship will evolve all kinds of "stunts" on the apparatus, pyra- 
mid and tumbling teams, boys' leagues, track meets, indus- 
trial work and games. Keep a boy busy and you will keep 
him out of mischief, and the best kind of busyness is some 
kind of physical activity. The solution of the juvenile delin- 
quency problem is not the juvenile court. Prevention is the 
cure, and it is far better to build playgrounds than reform 



44 Bulletin of the Extension Division 



schools, and to have on the public payroll playground leaders 
rather than probation officers. 

The children of today are the youth of tomorrow. The 
youth of today are the citizens of tomorrow. All that we do 
for those who come to our playgrounds makes for a better 
nation, prepared for a wholesome peace, of healthy, self- 
reliant, self -controlled citizens who know the difference be- 
tween liberty and license ; prepared, if need be, for war. 

We say that proper play promotes patriotism and peace, 
and of course the word "proper" implies play under leader- 
ship. Thru this kind of play, racial, religious, and national 
prejudice is eliminated, and the American thru the real melt- 
ing-pot — the playground — is achieved. The leader is the 
chemist of the melting-pot, to bring the different ingredients 
together without blowing up the whole affair, to weld the good 
of all groups into the gold of good citizenship, to eliminate 
the bad as the slag and dross. The chemist keeps the pot boil- 
ing, assimilating, digesting, amalgamating. Without his lead- 
ership the great energies would go out in a destructive way, 
instead of in a constructive way. 

The best expression of youth welfare and leadership is 
when the leader brings the community together in play fes- 
tivals, pageants, celebrations, etc. The summer season usually 
opens up in the early part of May and closes in September. 
Leaders of the right sort have a community celebration of 
Memorial Day (May 30), Flag Day (June 14), a big Sane 
Fourth Celebration, and end the summer with a track and 
field day on Labor Day in September. In the play festival, 
the folk dances, gymnastic dances, athletic stunts and drills, 
games, etc., bring together various races, creeds, nationalities. 
The community that plays together will be the community that 
works together. If, in the time of youth, we get the idea of 
cooperation thru play, the team spirit, we will find that we 
are building a community spirit full of loyalty and happiness. 

Today we are striving to prove that youth welfare needs 
leadership in play. We have already proved to most minds 
that the leader is more important than the play space or the 
play equipment. Today on most of our playgrounds we are 
demonstrating the value of leadership, not what leadership 
thru salaries costs the community, but how much proper lead- 
ership saves the community. Tomorrow all of us, the public, 



Play and Recreation 



45 



park boards, recreation commissions, etc., will accept the ne- 
cessity of leadership and supervision on our playgrounds and 
in our recreation, as we today accept the teacher in our public 
schoolroom, without question. The standard of these leaders 
will also be raised — in personality, training and education, in 
experience, and in salary. We cannot leave our leadership or 
the supervision of our playgrounds to laborers or to those 
who are worth only laborers' salaries. 

The greater need of a child is not a plaything but a play- 
fellow, not the space in which to play, but play fellowship. 
Under the guidance of good leadership, when the leader is a 
play-fellow as well as a play supervisor, we find that a finer 
relationship of real neighborliness and friendship is estab- 
lished, that a civic religion in which all youth can join is 
brought about. When a lad goes into a baseball game or a 
track meet, and plays fair against his opponent, is loyal to his 
home team, can be a good loser, is ready to make a sacrifice 
hit — we say this play under leadership is more important in 
the development of that boy's character and his real educa- 
tion than for him to learn how many soldiers were killed in 
the Civil War, or the location of a city in Africa. 

Youth — youth with all his idealism, courage, daring, hope, 
possibilities — youth needs a guide, philosopher, and friend. In 
his play the leadership we give will be his guide and standard, 
and in his play and recreation he will make his friends. 
Youth welfare makes for community welfare, for a nation's 
welfare. No community can be so backward as to have no 
play facilities for its youth. No community can afford not 
to have leadership and supervision in that play and recreation. 
A thousand boys can know one man — the play leader — and 
be inspired by him. Recreation is re-creation and play means 
progress, but not without proper leadership. 



Extension Division Publications 



Unless a price is stated publications are free. Where publications are marked with an 
asterisk (*) reduced rates are made for purchases in quantity. A limited number of copies of 
publications marked with a dagger (t) are distributed free of charge to citizens of Indiana. 

Circulars of Information — 

Community Institutes: Explanation and Suggested Programs. 

Community Institutes: Methods of Organization. 

Public Discussion : Package Libraries. 

Visual Instruction : Motion Pictures. 

Club-Study: Departments and Courses of Study. 
Bulletins — 

Proceedings of a Conference (First) on Taxation in Indiana (1914). 
50 cents. 

Proceedings of a Conference (Second) on Taxation in Indiana (1915). 
25 cents. 

Public Discussion Manual for Civic Discussion Clubs. 
*Proceedings of a Conference on the Question "Shall a Constitutional 
Convention be Called in Indiana?" 25 cents. 
Proceedings of a Conference (First) on Educational Measurements 

(1914) . (Out of print.) 

fProceedings of a Conference (Second) on Educational Measurements 

(1915) . 50 cents. 

Public Discussion: State High School Discussion League (County 

Government), (1914-15). 
Public Discussion: State High School Discussion League (Municipal 

Home Rule), (1915-16). 
A Manual of Pageantry. 

Extension Division Announcements (1916-17). 
History Consultation Service. 

History Teaching in the Secondary Schools : A Conference held at 
Gary, Ind. (Out of print.) 
fProceedings of the Indiana Newspaper Conference (1915). 25 cents. 
Correspondence-Study. 

Lantern Slides : Rules for Borrowing, Catalog, and Suggestions for 
Use. 

The Community Schoolhouse: Bibliography, Notes, List of Lantern 
Slides. 

First Loan Exhibit of Pictures : A Catalog, with Notes. 
Early Indiana History: Bibliography, Notes, and List of Lantern 
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Indiana Local History: A Guide to its Study, with Some Bibliograph- 
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Westminster Abbey: A Lecture to Accompany Lantern Slides. 
Reference Aids for Schools. 
Community Welfare Programs. 

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